Category Archives: Disease Prevention

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Findings of a Consumer Reports investigation about arsenic and lead levels in apple juice and grape juice have prompted the organization to call for government standards to limit consumers’ exposure to these toxins.

The tests of 88 samples of apple juice and grape juice purchased in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut by Consumer Reports staffers found that 10 percent of those samples had total arsenic levels exceeding federal drinking-water standards of 10 parts per billion (ppb) and 25 percent had lead levels higher than the 5 ppb limit for bottled water set by the Food and Drug Administration. Most of the arsenic detected in our tests was the type called inorganic, which is a human carcinogen.

A government test used to measure the radiation people absorb from their cellphones might underestimate the levels to which most adults and children are exposed, according to a group of doctors and researchers whose stated mission is to promote awareness of environmental health risks they believe may be linked to cancer.

The reason for the discrepancy, the group says, is that the process to determine radiation exposure from cellphones involves the use of a mannequin model that they say approximates a 6-foot-2, 220-pound person. Because the model represents only about 3 percent of the population, the authors report, the test will not accurately predict the radiation exposure of the other 97 percent of the population, including children. The group is pushing for a new testing system to measure radiation exposure in a wider range of consumers.

“The standard for cellphones has been developed based on old science and old models and old assumptions about how we use cellphones, and that’s why they need to change,” said Dr. Devra Davis, former senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton administration and one of the report’s authors.

A different study cited in the report says a child’s bone marrow absorbs 10 times the radiation as an adult. The authors also raise questions about long-term side effects, such as infertility in males who carry phones in their pockets, an exposure unaccounted for in the traditional certification process.

The authors suggest an alternative certification process, one that uses MRI scans to test real humans, including children and pregnant women. Such an approach would provide exposure data on a “Virtual Family,” representing all ages, the authors say.

Americans typically have a ‘shoot first, ask later’ mentality. We advise caution since the risks are unknown. Put your phone into airplane mode before your child plays a game. If you child needs to talk on your phone, use speaker mode. If you are on your phone for more than 1 hour per day, use a headset. We recommend the wired headset – yes they are not as COOL as bluetooth but bluetooth also carries unknown risks. I use Mercola’s airtube headset: http://products.mercola.com/blue-tube-headset/

A lot of science has done the work to show that visceral fat, the fat surrounding organs in the abdominal cavity, is very much like any other gland in the endocrine system. This means that visceral fat produces it own hormones and messages. Other organs that release hormone signals are glands such as the ovaries, testes, pancreas, the adrenals, and the pituitary gland in the brain.
Visceral fat is not the same as subcutaneous fat, which sits just beneath the skin. The messages and signals released from fat tissue are pathogenic. Which means that many of the messages promote disease.

So, not only is visceral fat cumbersome, it is also dangerous! We now know that visceral fat:

Controls signaling related to appetite.

Generates insulin resistance, which is a prerequisite to Type II Diabetes.

Increases sensitivity to pain.

Inhibits muscle growth.

Releases pro-inflammatory messages.

What is interesting about pro-inflammatory messages that are produced by visceral fat is that they take part in what is known as a viscous cycle. In other words, inflammation that originates in visceral fat tells the body to make more fat!

An interesting question asked in an article over at Yahoo.com. Can your kids ‘catch’ your stress?.

You may think you’re doing a good job of shielding your kids from your anxiety and stress. But research shows that your children are probably picking up on it anyway—and it’s affecting them, physically and emotionally, more than you could imagine.

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But how do kids know that something’s wrong, even when we keep telling them—and ourselves—that everything is fine? Neuroscientists call it attunement, and it may have to do with our ability to feel empathy. “Attunement is basically a fancy word for what we used to call the mother-infant bond, where parent and child are so attuned to each other that the child can pick up on a parent’s stress and absorb it almost by osmosis,” explains Code, who calls it “the mind-body connection” in his book. “It’s not so much what we say or do to our kids. It’s more about the ‘vibe’ we give off in their presence. We simply cannot fake being calm to our kids.”

Many parents aren’t even aware of how high their stress levels really are, Code points out. Between the still-weak economy and our increasingly isolated modern lifestyle, “stressed out” has become the new normal. The push to be the perfect parent is also ratcheting up the stress levels—and harming children rather than helping them. “It’s not about, ‘The more attention I give my kid, the better they’ll turn out.’ Rather, it’s about, “The calmer and more social I am, the better my kid will turn out’,’ Code says. “It turns out we were so busy killing ourselves to make our kids happy that our stress is now making them unhealthy.”

How to combat stress as a family:
1 – Parents, have a family purpose bigger than your kids. The article mentions being social as a way to beat stress.
2 – Be calm. What works for you, stop and take a breath? Read a Psalm and pray? Take life a little less seriously and play.
3 – Eat well and get enough sleep. These are also critical for overall health to cope with stress. Also supplement with Omega 3′s, magnesium and vitamins.